Energy in the world

Energy is the primary ‘fuel’ for social and economic development, but energy and energy-related activities also have significant impacts on other areas such as the environment and technology impacts. Therefore, it is important for decision-makers to have access to reliable and accurate data in a user-friendly format. The energy sector has long lead times, and therefore any long-term strategy should be based on sound information and data. Detailed resource data, selected cost data and a technology overview in the main WER report provide an excellent foundation for assessing different energy options based on factual information supplied by the WEC members from all over the world.

Some of the changes we have seen over the last couple of years are:

• The past 15 years have seen unprecedented change in the consumption of energy resources
• Unexpected high growth in the renewables market.
• Growth of unconventional resources
• Improvements in technology evolution for all the resources
• Decrease in energy prices
• Decoupling of economic growth and GHG emissions
• More diversified energy mix achieved
• Growth in community ownership and development of micro grids
• General trend of smaller generation across technologies and resources
• Energy sources are moving closer to consumers
• Costs are coming down for most energy resources and technologies
• Subsidies for clean energy as well as fossil fuels are decreasing in some countries.
• Competitive auctions, changing the development process and risk profile of individual projects.